President Bush is said to be hoping for a compromise on whether to allow federally funded medical research on cells from human embryos. Compromise is a worthy goal. But on this issue, the notion of compromise is an odd one for a couple of reasons.
First, the Clinton Administration's rules that Bush has suspended while he searches for a compromise are themselves a compromise. They forbid federally funded researchers to destroy human embryos, but they allow the use of stem cells from embryos destroyed by others. What Bush wants is a compromise of a compromise.
Second, the argument for banning...